


Your Plans And Those Slow Hands

by rsadelle



Category: Still Star-Crossed (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Biting, Bruises, F/M, Love Bites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:08:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23723608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: Hooking up with Benvolio Montague in a club bathroom on a Saturday night is maybe not one of Rosaline's best life choices. On the other hand, he's really good at it.
Relationships: Rosaline Capulet/Benvolio Montague
Comments: 23
Kudos: 123





	Your Plans And Those Slow Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Niall Horan's "Slow Hands," which is an excellent song to listen to on repeat if you're writing a story about people leaving hickeys on each other.

Hooking up with Benvolio Montague in a club bathroom on a Saturday night is maybe not one of Rosaline's best life choices. On the other hand, he's really good at it.

The angle isn't quite ideal, but he has one hand under her thigh, helping her hold it up so every grinding thrust makes her feel good.

"Fuck, Capulet," he breathes against her mouth.

She kisses him, hard enough that she catches his lip between her teeth.

The next grind into her is positively filthy, and she lets go of his mouth to let out a moan that's not entirely covered up by the thump of bass from outside the bathroom, but no one inside it seems to care about the sounds coming from the last stall.

Benvolio puts his mouth on her neck, and then he's sucking on it, a sharp pull that hurts and throbs and feels so fucking good that it takes Rosaline's breath away.

She's making noises at the back of her throat, and he grinds slow and dirty into her, and she moans even louder when she comes.

Benvolio's mouth opens against her throat, just pressing there while he thrusts into her hard a couple of times and comes. He nips at her neck before he steps back.

Rosaline lets the foot that was hooked around him drop to the floor. She leans against the wall, because she's not sure she can stand up without it.

"Look at that," Benvolio says, "maybe we can get along after all."

Rosaline's a little drunk and she just came, so she laughs and pushes off the wall to lean against him instead. "Maybe." She kisses him, a languid exploration of his mouth that he eagerly participates in. Then she pushes herself back onto her own two feet and pulls her skirt into place. "Thanks, Montague."

He slides a hand down her arm, and gives her a heated look. "Any time, Capulet."

She thinks it wasn't that bad an idea, until she's staring down the hickey on her neck in the mirror the next morning. It's summer, too hot for a scarf, and she's not going to mass with a visible hickey.

Livia joins her at the sink in their shared bathroom. "Wow. Did you hook up with a vampire?"

Rosaline makes a face. "Not exactly."

Livia watches her poke at the hickey. "Is makeup even going to cover that?"

Rosaline says, "I hope so," grimly and pulls out her foundation.

It doesn't hide everything, but it does enough that she can hold her head up high.

*

She's at a house party the next time, one of the other rich kids of Verona whose parents are off to the trendy new summer vacation spot for a romantic week opening up the place for the rest of them. It's loud and raucous and full of drunk people.

"Capulet!" Benvolio is one of those drunk people, but genial about it. And Rosaline's not entirely sober herself.

"Montague."

Benvolio looks around; Rosaline follows his gaze and doesn't see anyone she knows that well, and certainly not anyone either of them are related to.

"Come on." He takes her hand.

Rosaline follows him for a few steps before she leans back and pulls him to a stop. "Where are we going?"

"Upstairs." He flashes her a grin. "Trust me, Capulet."

The hell of it is that she does, so she goes upstairs with him and into what is clearly a guest room. "Really?" she asks when he locks the door behind them.

Benvolio shrugs. "He has to know he's going to have to have all the sheets changed after this." He steps forward and puts his hands on either side of Rosaline's face to kiss her, and she forgets all about any objections she has to the venue.

She doesn't have any objections to getting naked or getting into bed with him either. But then he tilts her head back and sucks at her neck on the unmarked side, and she gasps, "No, wait."

He raises his head. "What?" He looks good, his hair a little out of place, a flush on his cheeks, his lips red. Rosaline almost loses her train of thought.

"Not there. It's too hot for scarves. I'm not going to mass with a visible hickey again."

Benvolio flashes a grin and nips at her neck too lightly to leave a mark.

He makes her come twice and gives her a pair of hickeys, one on the curve of her breast, one on the inside of her thigh. It's much better for going to church in the morning.

It's not as good when Juliet barges into Rosaline's room after lunch and says, "Put on your swimsuit. We're going to Romeo's. Livia's already ready to go."

Rosaline's bikini doesn't hide anything. She throws on a pair of shorts and a loosely buttoned shirt over it for the drive to the Montague house.

Romeo is there, of course, and Benvolio, Mercutio, Isabella, Helena, Escalus. The family heads have been making a show of getting along since Romeo and Juliet have been dating; their generation mostly manages to do it honestly.

Livia and Juliet strip down to their suits and everyone else is already in bikinis or shorts, so Rosaline gives in to the inevitable and takes off her shorts and shirt.

"Oh my God," Livia says next to her. "Did you hook up with the vampire again?"

Rosaline settles into the lounge chair next to Isabella. "Not a vampire." She looks down, at the hickey just above her bikini top. "He didn't even break the skin."

"Impressive," Helena says from the other side of Isabella.

Rosaline makes a point not to react, which works well enough to get people to lose interest for the moment, except Isabella, who leans over and asks, sunglasses tilted down so Rosaline can see her eyes, "Was it good? He didn't hurt you?"

Rosaline tips her sunglasses down too. "I'm good." She touches her fingers to the hickey on her neck that's almost healed. "Nothing I wasn't okay with."

Isabella nods and pushes her sunglasses up. "Well, in that case, get it, girl."

Rosaline pushes her sunglasses up and laughs as she leans back on the lounge chair.

She goes inside later, looking for water and a few minutes out of the heat, and turns away from the dispenser in the fridge with a glass to find Escalus behind her.

"Rosaline." He steps forward, into her space, and he's looking down, at her breasts or the hickey or both.

It hasn't been that long; her body remembers what it's like to want him.

He drags his gaze up her body to her face, and he meets her eyes. "You shouldn't be hooking up with someone who treats you like that."

And just like that, any want she might have been feeling fizzles out and she remembers that his treating her like a dirty little secret wasn't the only thing she didn't like about their relationship.

"You don't have any say in who I hook up with any more."

He has that pained look down perfectly. "Rosaline, you know I care about you."

She almost wavers into believing he wants what's best for her, and then Benvolio comes into the kitchen and Escalus steps back quickly, like he doesn't want anyone to know he was even talking to her.

Benvolio looks at them, and then steps between them to open the freezer. "You find what you wanted?"

Rosaline holds up her glass of water. "Yep."

Escalus says a very precise, "Yes," and then walks out.

Rosaline takes a deep drink of her water to steady herself.

Benvolio gets a box of popsicles out of the freezer and sets them on the counter next to Rosaline. He steps in close and looks her up and down. It feels playful, not like he's trapping her there.

"I like the look."

She doesn't take the compliment easily. "Which part? The bikini or your hickeys?"

"Both." He leans in and skims his lips along her jaw. "I could leave some more."

The feeling of his mouth against her skin is very tempting. "You do remember everyone we know is right out there."

He murmurs, "You can't see in here from the pool," and presses a kiss to the hinge of her jaw. Then he picks up the popsicles from the counter and steps away. "Come on, Capulet, you don't want to miss out on popsicles."

Rosaline gulps at her water, then refills it before going outside.

*

Rosaline runs into Benvolio at Coffee Time. Or he sees her, to be more precise, because she's deep in a book, occasionally remembering to sip her latte, when someone sets a plate down next to her and she looks up, startled out of the story.

"Capulet." Benvolio, smiling and handsome, nudges the plate closer to her. "For you."

Rosaline glances at the cookie on it. Chocolate chip, her favorite thing Coffee Time makes. "Thank you." It's almost a question.

He grins at her, not quite dirty, but like it could go there. "Mind if I share the table?"

The place is half-empty and there's no need for it, but also no reason to refuse him. She gestures him into the chair across from her.

He puts a coffee cup and a second plate - holding a snickerdoodle - on the table, and follows them up with the sketchbook he had tucked under his arm. "I won't bother you."

He doesn't, mostly, except that she is exquisitely aware of both his presence and the fact that he bought her a cookie. It's actually kind of nice, and she settles into the comfortable silence.

Benvolio's phone beeps at him, and he looks down at it, downs the last of his coffee, and closes his sketchbook. "That's my cue to be elsewhere."

Rosaline puts her book down. "Thank you for the cookie."

Benvolio smiles at her. "Any time." He picks up her hand, something mischievous in his eyes. He presses a kiss to her palm, and bites at the inside of her wrist. It's not hard enough to leave a mark, but it's more than enough to make her wish he weren't walking away from her.

He stops to chat with the barista and hand over a page he tears out of his sketchbook. When Rosaline leaves, she pauses to see that the newest thing in the glass-fronted case is a drawing of her, book in her hands, cookie and logoed coffee cup on the table in front of her, Benvolio's signature in the corner.

*

It's Rosaline's turn to stop by the side of a table and ask, "Mind if I join you?"

Benvolio looks up from his phone, smiles at her, and says, "Be my guest." He turns off his phone and tucks it into his pocket while Rosaline sits across from him. "What brings you out for lunch alone?"

Rosaline shrugs. "Just wanted to get out of the house."

Benvolio raises his eyebrows like he knows she's not telling the whole truth. "Well, that's worked out to my advantage." He leans forward, and drops his voice so she has to lean in too. "I'm surprised you didn't bring a book."

Rosaline lets a slow smile spread across her face and matches his tone. "I have one in my purse, so you'd better entertain me, Montague."

He laughs, a purely delighted sound, and sits back. "You're a tough crowd, Capulet."

She grins back at him and picks up her sandwich. "I wouldn't want to make it too easy for you."

"Oh, you've never been easy."

It makes her laugh, and she almost chokes on her bite of sandwich.

Benvolio looks completely pleased to have made her laugh.

Having lunch with him is fun, and she's genuinely sorry when her phone starts going off and doesn't stop. When she pulls it out of her purse, there's the end of a string of increasingly caps-locked texts from Juliet. The last two mention her parents.

"I have to go." Rosaline gathers up her purse.

"Too bad." Benvolio leans forward and lowers his voice. "I have a condom, and the bathrooms here lock."

Rosaline pauses next to his chair before she walks away, and leans down. "Maybe next time." She follows up the whisper with a sharp bite to his earlobe.

*

Another house party, and Benvolio finds Rosaline alone in the crowd. "How's this for a next time?"

Rosaline leans in close. "I have a condom if you don't."

Benvolio's teeth flash white with his grin. "Oh, I'm prepared for this, Capulet." He takes her hand and walks them upstairs. The first three doors they try are locked. Opening the fourth yields a shriek from half of the couple already in there.

Rosaline stifles her sudden giggles against Benvolio's arm as they close the door and continue down the hallway. The fifth door leads to a bathroom.

Benvolio raises his eyebrows at Rosaline. She hasn't backed down from one of his challenges yet. She slips past him into the bathroom.

He follows her in, and closes and locks the door. Then they don't waste any time.

Rosaline wraps her arms around Benvolio when he kisses her, and there are three, four, five of those kisses before their need for skin changes their simple holding on into a frantic race to get their clothes off.

"You're gorgeous," Benvolio murmurs into her neck when they're down to just their underwear. He turns her around and pulls her back against his chest, one arm across her stomach. "Look at you."

When she looks up, she can, because they're in a bathroom and they're right in front of the mirror. His arm is across her middle, light against the skin of her stomach, and she's tilting her head so he can kiss her neck.

"Look how beautiful you are," Benvolio says. He stops kissing her neck to lean his cheek against hers.

She is, with his hands on her, with his eyes on her in the mirror. They are. Rosaline takes a moment to appreciate that, to see herself that way, and then she reaches back to touch Benvolio.

"We came in here for a reason."

He grins at her in the mirror and kisses her shoulder.

They finish undressing when he steps back for a moment, or at least the important parts; Rosaline leaves her bra on. She can hear him opening the condom, and then he presses up against her back, his mouth on her shoulder.

"Like this?"

"I bet you've always wanted to watch yourself having sex."

Benvolio nips lightly at her shoulder. "Who says I never have?"

Rosaline rolls her eyes at him in the mirror.

He laughs, and bites her shoulder hard enough that she can feel his teeth dig in. "You should get to see yourself."

She smirks at him. "Who says I never have?" She spreads her legs and bends over a little, then nudges him with one foot.

Benvolio pushes into her slowly, one long slide until his chest is pressed to her back. "You've never seen it with me."

There's no disputing that, and when Benvolio both starts to move and slides the hand on her stomach down between her legs, she forgets about why she would even want to.

It's good, like it has been with him even since the first time, and better now that they know each other. He kisses her neck, bites her shoulder, sucks hard enough at her shoulder blade that he probably leaves a mark. She turns her head and sucks at the meat of his upper arm hard enough to leave a mark there.

"Fuck, Capulet," he says at that. Then he presses close to her back, pulls her against him, and says, "Look at us."

She hasn't been, more focused on how it feels, but at that she opens her eyes and looks in the mirror. They look good together, and his slow smile makes the heat in the base of her stomach build.

He presses his open mouth to her neck, and they look even better when she tilts her head to let him, and then he's kissing her there not hard enough to leave a mark and moving in her and she pushes back against him, and he makes her come and she makes him come, and when she looks again, they look even better in the aftermath.

It's only a moment before Benvolio kisses her shoulder and pulls out of her. He takes care of the condom and there's the practical part where they retrieve their clothes from the floor and get dressed.

Benvolio catches her around the waist before she can open the door.

Rosaline turns into his hold. "What?"

"Leaving without a kiss? I'm not that kind of boy, Capulet."

"You really are," Rosaline says. She kisses him anyway, and she means it to be just a peck, but he turns it into a real, deep kiss, the kind that makes her knees weak. She's glad for his arms still around her when they part.

Benvolio says, "See you next time," with a wink, and he slips around her and out of the bathroom.

*

An idle thought about nineteenth-century correspondence forms leads Rosaline to the library. It's summer break, so they're open, but there's hardly anyone there. She finds the shelf she wants and stands there flipping through books for long enough that the banks of lights that came on when she walked down the stacks turn off.

She knows someone's coming her way because the lights come on. She glances up when footsteps reach the shelves she's in, then blinks because it's Benvolio, and he smirks at her and comes to join her.

"Capulet." He glances at the book in her hands and the shelf behind her. "A little light summer reading?"

"Something like that. What are you here looking for?"

He smirks at her. "I think I've found anything I could want."

It's a terrible line. "Really? That's what you're going with?"

Benvolio steps in close. "Is it working?" He leans in all the way to kiss her, a series of little, teasing kisses that come with his arms around her.

It shouldn't work on her, but it does. It's charming and sweet and also hot, the way his hands slip up under the edge of her shirt.

Rosaline puts the book down on a shelf so she can wrap both arms around Benvolio.

He grins at her, bright flash of a smile across his face, and tilts his head to kiss her neck.

Rosaline shifts with him to make it easier, and then his hands slide halfway up her back under her shirt, and just letting him kiss her isn't enough. She pushes him back and follows until he's the one with his back against the bookshelves and she's the one keeping him there.

She kisses him, her hands cupping his face to keep him just where she wants him, where she can lick into his mouth and enjoy the way it makes his fingers dig into her skin when he pulls her closer.

They're quiet, because they're in a library, and that's hot too. It's a kind of irresponsible Rosaline has never dared to be, making out with a Montague in a place where they could but probably won't get caught, and she's starting to get the appeal.

She stops kissing Benvolio, makes him tip his chin up so she can suck at the underside of his jaw.

He makes a noise, a nearly silent huff of air, and she knows from that, and from the way his hips press into hers, that he's enjoying it, that he likes it as much as she likes it when he does it to her.

"Holy fuck, Capulet," he murmurs when she lets go of his skin. He kisses her, and he pushes so she has her back to the shelves again, and they're rubbing against each other, irresponsible and turned on.

The lights, which all turned off sometime while they were kissing start to come on.

They break apart, both of them breathing heavily.

Benvolio steps back, leaving her leaning against the shelves. He rakes his eyes over her body, and then he very conspicuously adjusts himself before he leans forward to brush a soft kiss across her lips. "See you around, Capulet."

Rosaline checks out the book she was flipping through and two more from the shelf; she doesn't have the concentration to keep reading them in the moment.

*

Rosaline picks up her phone when it buzzes. Livia and Juliet are both out somewhere, and she tries to keep an eye on her phone in case they need something. It's not either of them. It's Benvolio.

_Everyone's out. Want to come over and watch a movie?_

Rosaline's thumbs hover over the screen. Then she calls him.

"Are you seriously booty calling me?" Rosaline asks the moment he picks up the phone.

"Netflix and chill, baby," Benvolio says.

Rosaline lets her unimpressed silence speak for you.

There's a laugh in Benvolio's voice when he says, "No, really. Romeo's out with Juliet, Mercutio had a Grindr date, and my uncle's at a business dinner. Come watch a movie with me."

Rosaline surprises herself by saying, "I'll be there in fifteen."

Benvolio answers the door himself and shows her into a den. He actually has the Netflix search screen open.

Rosaline raises her eyebrows at him.

"This was a good faith invitation." Benvolio sits down and pats the couch next to him.

Rosaline sits down right next to him. He puts his arm around her and then hands her the remote.

Rosaline eyes him to make sure he's serious about it, and then pulls up National Treasure. She's seen it before, so she doesn't care if they get distracted. There's a good chance of that, with the way she can feel Benvolio warm and solid all along her side.

She puts her hand on Benvolio's knee, and by the time Ben and Riley are back in DC, she's slid it almost all the way up his thigh and he's nuzzling at her neck.

Rosaline turns her head, and Benvolio meets her with a kiss.

"I really did invite you over to watch a movie," he says.

Rosaline shrugs. "I probably would have come over even just for the booty call."

The corners of Benvolio's eyes crinkle up with his smile.

Rosaline twists, straddles him, rests her arms on his shoulders. "Do you really care about watching the rest of the movie?"

Benvolio puts one hand on her back to keep her from falling while he leans forward to snag the remote off the coffee table and turn the TV off.

"I didn't think so." Rosaline kisses him. They're both smiling into it at first, until it gets more serious, deeper, and then Rosaline pulls at his shirt and when she has to lean back so he can take it off, she takes hers off too and then there's skin pressed to skin which makes every kiss better.

Rosaline rolls her hips down onto him, getting enough friction from it for it to be good for her. Good for Benvolio too, going by the way he groans into her mouth and digs his fingers into her back and ass.

Rosaline stops touching him long enough to reach behind herself and unhook her bra. She slides it off her arms without breaking the kiss, and then puts her hands on him again, squeezing the firm muscles of his shoulders and stroking down his back.

They have to part to breathe, and Benvolio comes back to kiss down her neck. He keeps going all the way down her breast, and he gets her shorts open while he does it. He bites the curve of her breast, a momentary closing of his teeth over her skin, then keeps going down.

He puts his hand down her pants at the same time he scrapes his teeth over her nipple.

Rosaline makes a sound that would be way too loud for anything but an empty house.

Benvolio leans back to grin at her. "Good?"

Rosaline threads her fingers into his hair. "Don't _stop_."

Benvolio answers by bending his head to her breast and rubbing his fingers against her clit. She's shameless about enjoying it, moving her hips into his touch and not even trying to keep herself quiet.

When he switches to her untouched nipple and starts with a sharp bite, she cries out way too loud and grinds hard against his hand. He moves his hand with her, rubbing her off while he keeps biting her.

His mouth moves up, just above her nipple, and he bites there, and then sucks, and it's like all the feeling in her body zings between two points of contact, his mouth leaving a mark and his fingers on her clit, and she can feel it building, building, building while she makes these whining moans in the back of her throat and then the tension snaps and she comes with a shout that echoes off the walls.

Benvolio eases up with his mouth, and she can feel his smile against her skin even before she looks down to see just how smug it is. "Was it good for you?"

She shakes her head at him, not quite laughing at the smirk on his face. "You know you're great in bed."

"Great, huh?" He presses a kiss to the skin he was just sucking on and slides his hand out of her pants with a last drag of his fingers over her clit.

Rosaline bends down to kiss him, which has the agreeable side effect of wiping the smirk off his face. She gets the button on his shorts unbuttoned while they're kissing, and the zipper down. They both stop to look when she gets his dick out and starts to jerk him off.

Rosaline bends enough to kiss the side of Benvolio's neck, and then lower to suck a mark over his collarbone.

He gasps and arches into her touch, into her mouth.

Rosaline moves her hand faster, and she lays a line of bites all along his collarbone.

Benvolio comes with a groan.

Rosaline keeps biting him until he tips her head up and kisses her. It goes on and on. When they break apart, Benvolio is smiling gently at her. He brushes a curl of her hair off her face.

It's a tender gesture, and he's beautiful like that. Rosaline presses her hand to his chest and leans in to kiss him again. Benvolio kisses her back, and then makes a face, and there's the awkward shift while they use his shirt to mostly clean up her hand and his chest. They each take care of zipping and buttoning their own shorts, and then Benvolio pulls her close and kisses her.

It seems like a long time that they stay like that, Rosaline in his lap while they trade slow, soft kisses.

Rosaline is the one to pull away. "I should go." She's acutely aware of Benvolio watching her as she puts her bra and shirt on.

He walks her to the door, and before she can leave, he pulls her around and kisses her up against the door like she's some kind of movie heroine. "See you around, Capulet."

*

Rosaline's just getting into bed when her phone vibrates with an incoming text from Benvolio.

_You up?_

Before Rosaline can decide if she wants to text him back, her phone buzzes with an incoming call. She picks it up and says, "You can do better."

Benvolio's laugh is quiet, like he's trying not to be overheard. "You said I could go straight for the booty call."

"I did, but I'm already in bed." Rosaline throws it down like a challenge.

"So get up, open your window, and let me in."

Rosaline gets up, goes over to her window, and pushes the curtains aside. Benvolio waves up at her from the garden. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Making a booty call." It's too dark to see the details of the grin she's sure is on his face. "If Romeo can climb up to Juliet's room, I can climb up to yours."

Rosaline is deeply tempted. She _likes_ him, and he's great in bed, and he's a Montague who's snuck into the Capulet house's gardens just for her. It's also not that safe a climb. "Are you drunk?"

"Not even a little bit."

Rosaline hangs up and opens the window.

Benvolio climbs up the wall and into her room. He pushes the window shut. "Hi."

"Hi," Rosaline says with a giggle she can't quite contain. He climbed into her room. "We have to be quiet."

Benvolio steps in close, so his lips are brushing hers when he says, "I can be quiet. Can you?"

They tumble back and forth across her bed, muffling their noises by pressing their mouths to each other.

Benvolio is on top when Rosaline comes, and she leans up to sink her teeth into his shoulder, biting down hard to keep from yelling.

He stays on top until he comes, his mouth open wide and wet against the curve where her neck meets her shoulder. Then he rolls to the side, takes care of the condom, and cuddles in close to her.

"You're not staying," she warns him.

"Let me enjoy the afterglow, Capulet."

His idea of enjoying the afterglow is to let his hands wander while he kisses her. They don't speak, staying quiet to keep anyone else from hearing them.

Benvolio's hands feel good on her, and so does his mouth when he sucks at her unmarked breast. Very good. She comes again, a slow, rolling wave of an orgasm. She bites at the palm of his free hand to keep herself quiet.

They make out for a few more minutes before Benvolio gets out of bed and gathers up his clothes.

Rosaline pulls her pajamas on to walk him to the window. Before he can leave, she pulls him close and kisses him with the kind of depth that could be a prelude to something else, then releases him. "See you next time, Montague."

She closes the window behind him and doesn't go back to bed until he makes it to the ground and waves up at her.

*

Their whole group goes out two days later, Capulets, Montagues, and Princes. It's a Thursday, which means Stella and Nencia are off shift and go with them. Stella strips to pay for school; Nencia refers to herself as "your basic townie stripper trying to pay rent." They have a practical, mercenary view of men and money that Rosaline would appreciate more if she weren't, she can admit to herself, jealous of how easy Stella and Benvolio are with each other.

Rosaline is between Isabella and Livia, which means she can mostly talk to them instead of Benvolio and Stella across from her.

Rosaline leans forward to get another slice of pizza. It makes the drape neck of her shirt shift.

"Oh my God," Livia says next to her, leaning over to nudge Rosaline's shirt aside. "Did you hook up with the vampire again? That's fresh."

"I don't know why he can't leave them on your neck like a normal person," Isabella says.

Rosaline pushes Livia's hand away and readjusts her top. "Because they're too hard to hide for mass."

"If you want to let him," Nencia says, "go to the theater supply shop on 85th and pick up some Dermacolor. A lot of the girls use it, and it comes in a really wide range of skin tones."

"It'll work well enough for hickeys?" Rosaline asks.

Stella is the one to answer. "Oh yeah. I wore it every shift when I was hooking up with Ben. He's a biter, used to leave hickeys and bite marks all over me, and customers never knew." It drops into the conversation like a stone into a still pond.

"Holy shit," Isabella says, softly enough that only Rosaline and Helena on either side of her can hear.

On Rosaline's other side, Livia asks, "Have you been hooking up with Benvolio?"

Rosaline considers denying it for just a moment, but Benvolio looks so smug that it wouldn't be believable, and she doesn't want to make him feel the way Escalus used to make her feel. "Yes."

Stella rubs two fingers against the fading mark on the underside of Benvolio's jaw, Rosaline's mark. "Did you do this? It's nice. I could never bite back hard enough for him."

"Rosaline doesn't have that problem." There's a heated promise in Benvolio's voice, and in the look he throws her way.

"We can double date!" Juliet says to Rosaline.

Romeo directs his only slightly calmer, "We could double date," at Benvolio.

Escalus leans forward, too intense for this conversation. "Do you know what it looks like for a white man to leave bruises on you?"

Rosaline feels like a bucket of ice water has been dropped over her. Then the chill turns to fury. "Do you really think I haven't thought about that?"

There's a flash of something that could be regret or apology across Escalus's face, but it doesn't stop him. "He shouldn't-"

Rosaline cuts him off. "He hasn't done _anything_ to me that I didn't consent to. Enthusiastically."

The entire table goes silent.

Mercutio breaks the silence by leaning halfway over the table to high-five her. "Get it, Rosaline."

It's not the end of it; when they go to the movies after dinner, Escalus catches Rosaline alone at the back of the group.

"Hooking up with Benvolio is not a good idea. He's a drunk, he hangs out with strippers-"

Rosaline shakes off the hand Escalus put on her arm and cuts him off. "He's kind, and funny, and really great in bed. And you know what? It's nice to be with someone who makes it clear he wants me."

"He's not a good guy," Escalus says.

"Stop it," Rosaline says. "You don't care that I'm hooking up with him. You're just mad I'm not sitting around waiting until the next time you decide you want me."

Escalus says, "Rosaline," but Rosaline walks away from him and catches up with the rest of the group.

There's no subtlety to the way the group puts Rosaline next to Benvolio. Benvolio raises his eyebrows at her, and then reaches over and takes her hand.

Rosaline raises her eyebrows back. She raises their hands to her mouth and brushes a kiss across his knuckles. Then she bites down on the back of his wrist.

He grins at her. "Now you're getting the idea."

*

There are advantages to having everyone know. At a party that's not holding Rosaline's interest, there's no need to wait until everyone else is occupied before wandering through the crowd until she finds Benvolio. She can just walk up to him and slide her arm around his waist.

Benvolio turns his head to raise his eyebrows at her.

She raises hers right back and leans in, close enough that her lips brush his ear when she speaks. "Are you really enjoying this?"

He glances at the guys he was talking to. "I was, but not as much as I'm going to enjoy whatever you have in mind."

Rosaline nips at his earlobe and takes his hand as she draws away.

Benvolio nods a goodbye to the guys he was talking to and follows Rosaline through the house. It's early yet, and there's an empty bathroom on the first floor that she tugs him into.

"I like this," Benvolio says as he leans against the door and reaches behind himself to lock it.

Rosaline leans in, crowding him against the door. "Montague, shut up and take off your pants."

Benvolio grins at her and leans in to kiss her. "I like the way you think." His lips skim down her jaw to her neck. "Does this mean I can bite you here?" He nips lightly at her skin to demonstrate exactly where he means.

Rosaline tilts her head, wanting it because it does feel good. "No," she says. "I haven't-" She breaks off and hisses when he nips at her skin all the way down her neck. "I'll go this week, buy some better coverup. Then you can."

"Too bad." Benvolio pushes her back just far enough that he can slide down her body. "I was really looking forward to that." He pushes her shirt up and the waistband of her jeans down. He bites her there instead, long and slow enough that she'll have a mark.

It feels fantastic. Rosaline puts one hand on the door behind him to steady herself and one on the back of his head to keep him there.

He unbuttons her jeans, and Rosaline pulls her shirt over her head. She's sure there's going to be a mark by the time she pulls him away. "Pants off, Montague."

"You're so forward." He stands up and gets his pants off, keeping a condom out of his pocket before letting them fall to the floor.

"I know what I want."

Benvolio flashes her a grin and rolls on the condom. "How do you want this?"

Rosaline glances around the bathroom and hops up on the counter.

Benvolio steps between her legs and pushes into her. "Haven't done it quite like this."

Rosaline hooks her ankles together behind his back and loops her arms around his shoulders. "Lots of ways we haven't done it."

"You got a list?" Benvolio nuzzles at her cheek, down to her neck, over to her shoulder. He bites, where she'll be able to cover it up.

"Are we talking or hooking up?" Rosaline tips her head to the other side so she can return the favor and suck a mark onto Benvolio's collarbone.

Benvolio takes his mouth off of her skin. "Who says we can't do both?"

Rosaline leaves a mark on his throat, where he won't be able to easily cover it up. He bites both her shoulders and makes her come so hard she sees stars.

He reels her in once they've both put their clothes back on, and holds her pressed all along his body with one hand on the small of her back and the other between her shoulderblades. "Capulet," he says, "you are absolutely phenomenal in bed."

It would be difficult for Rosaline to feel any more of a contented glow than she does after how good what they just did was, but if anything could do it, it would be that. She kisses him. He kisses back, and then kisses her again, and then she kisses him again, and it goes on for a while.

Benvolio pulls away before it goes on so long that they're taking their clothes off again. "Come on, Capulet. If we're going to do that, we need to hydrate."

Rosaline laughs, which makes him grin at her. He takes her hand and lifts it to his mouth. He kisses it, and then bites her knuckles lightly. He doesn't let go when he opens the door.

*

Rosaline goes with the rest of the Capulets to the Montagues' annual end of summer Labor Day party. It's on their extravagantly large yacht, and it's only the second one the Capulets have attended. School has already started, meaning the younger Capulets and Montagues have classes the next day, but that's never stopped the Montagues before.

Luckily, Juliet drags Rosaline and Livia off as soon as they board the yacht. Juliet's parents can't object to it if it's Juliet doing it.

Juliet, phone in hand, unerringly leads them to the rest of the partygoers of their generation. Juliet wraps herself around Romeo as if she hadn't spent all day with him already.

Benvolio hands Rosaline a partially drained glass of champagne.

Rosaline gulps it down. "I needed that."

Benvolio grins. "Thought you might."

Before Rosaline - or Benvolio, who looks like he's thinking the same thing - can suggest they sneak away, Livia links an arm with hers and draws her into the general gaggle of conversation.

The party's actually enjoyable when they're only surrounded by their own group. Rosaline is still not sorry to have Benvolio subtly pull her away.

He takes her below decks and into a room with a bed.

"We can't be gone too long," Benvolio says right up against her neck, right before he nips it with his teeth.

Rosaline opens her purse by touch, rummages in it one-handed while he nips his way all along the neckline of her dress. She comes up with a condom, holds it up.

Benvolio grins at her, fierce, and undoes his pants. He puts on the condom, sits down on the edge of the bed, and gestures Rosaline to him.

She grins back at him, slips off her underwear and hikes up her skirt. She straddles him, careful not to injure either of them with her shoes.

"Fuck, Capulet," Benvolio groans into her ear.

Rosaline lets out her own appreciative huff of air. She brings her hands up to loosen his tie, gets the first few buttons of his shirt undone. She bends to bite down on his chest.

Benvolio swears, rocks up into her, gets one hand on the back of her neck and the other on her ass.

It's fast, the two of them moving against each other, Rosaline biting him, Benvolio pulling her head up so he can pull the neck of her dress to the side and return the favor.

It's no less good for how little time it takes, the two of them racing toward orgasm together, coming one after the other, panting into each other's skin for a long minute afterward.

They put themselves back together after, Rosaline pulling a mirror out of her purse to make sure it's not completely obvious what they've just been doing.

It doesn't keep them from being noticed; Livia shakes her head and says, "You're worse than Romeo and Juliet."

Everyone else laughs. Benvolio shrugs unapologetically.

They missed some of the party, but they're back in time for the fireworks over the water, the nominal reason the party's held on a yacht.

With everyone's attention on the sky, Rosaline is free to lean back into Benvolio where he stands behind her.

He wraps his arms around her waist and nips at her neck. "You realize," he murmurs, the fireworks and the crowd's reaction keeping them from being overheard, "that we're going to have to edit the story when our kids ask how we got together."

Rosaline twists her head to give him a look, eyebrows raised. "Our kids? I hope you don't think I'm going to stay home with them."

Benvolio grins at her. "Of course not. I'm counting on you to be the breadwinner so I can be a stay at home dad and dilettante artist."

He's better than dilettante, and his name if not his family's connections will open doors for him. It doesn't sound like the worst future.

"Maybe," Rosaline concedes. "If I decide to keep you."

Benvolio scrapes his teeth along the line of her jaw. "You will."


End file.
